Beautyful Girl and fashion girl Kate Middleton is the latest contribution to fashion: pantyhose. After two straight weeks of pairing knockout designer dresses with '80s-style sheer stockings, the Duchess of Cambridge has proven that everything she touches—really everythin and turns to style gold. Leggs were in fashion in the last time, Melanie Griffith was teasing her hair and rambling on about 'Trask'. But after a few months and a North American tour showing off shimmering gams, Kate's bringing back the look for a new generation.
“Sheer pantyhose look quite elegant,” writes the Boston Globe’s Beth Teitell, after scanning photos of Prince William’s wife in a carousel of dresses over the past two weeks. Teitell welcomes the redux as an antidote to shaving cuts and dry, unevenly fake-tanned knees.
The trend has caught on in the UK recently with a significant spike in nude hosiery sales since Kate's made them part of her dressing routine, according to the Daily Mail.
But skeptics say Kate's hosed-up look has less to do with her own invention and more to do with protocol. It's an unwritten rule that royal ambassadors and guests attend events dressed to make the queen proud: closed-toed shoes, mid-length skirts and pantyhose. Lady Di’s sheer stockings were such a staple of her regal look, they were incorporated into replica Franklin Mint dolls. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, a former cutting-edge catwalker, has been spotted at official events in the less-than-edgy hose. Even Kate’s sister Pippa Middleton, a by-proxy royal, has been spotted in the sheer legwear.
